Report: Revenue up, player salaries down
Kobe Bryant - G - Los Angeles Lakers
July 22, 2011 - 9:55 PM ET
The NBA and NBPA issued a joint press release detailing that basketball-related income (BRI) was up 4.8 percent in 2010-11, but player salaries were down $100 million from the previous year.
The decrease in revenue comes from teams like Sacramento, Detroit, and Minnesota cutting payroll, but the percentage increase in BRI during the worst economy since the Great Depression speaks to the popularity of the NBA last season. It's also more evidence that, if the NBA is hurting, it has less to do with player salaries and more to do with non-player expenses -- and the fact that large market owners do not want to share with small market owners.
Source: Ken Berger at CBSSports.com
advertisement